Miss Ida Thekla Bowser

Ida Thekla Bowser was born in 1873 in Marylebone, London, England, to Elizabeth and John G. Bowser, a baker and provision merchant. She had two older siblings, Harold J. and Elsie Bowser. 

Bowser was appointed editor of the Weddings section of The Queen in February 1904. She was also a freelance contributor to other periodicals including British Journal of Nursing, Cassell’s Magazine, Charing Cross Magazine, Gentlewoman, Lady’s World, The Ludgate, Myra’s Journal, Sunday Strand, Temple Magazine, Womanhood, and Young Man. Bowser joined the Society of Women Journalists in September of 1905 and was a member of the council from 1906 to 1912. She remained a member until her death in 1919.

When the First World War began, Bowser took a leave of absence from her staff position at The Queen to serve as a St. John Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at Queen Mary’s Royal Naval Hospital in Southend. Bowser had joined the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade in 1902. On June 1, 1915, she went to France where she was put in charge of an aid post along a railway line, “half way between the Base and the firing line” for nine and half months. Bowser returned to England in March of 1916 due to an intestinal obstruction that required surgery. However, she continued her efforts to support the war by lecturing on VAD work at the Front and publishing The Story of the British VAD in the Great War (1917) and Six Lectures to St. John’s V.A.D. Members (1918).

Following her discharge in 1916, Bowser was awarded the Silver War Badge, as well as the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal WWI. She was also appointed Honorary Serving Sister of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in England in 1916. Bowser’s intestinal injury eventually led to her death on January 11, 1919, at the age of 45.